War on Gaza 'must end now' say UK, France and 23 other countries

Middle East Eye

a day ago

A group of 25 countries, including France and the United Kingdom, have called on Israel to end its 21-month war on Gaza and said the suffering of ordinary Palestinians had "reached new depths".
"We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire," the countries said in a joint statement on Monday.
"Further bloodshed serves no purpose. We reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve this."
The signatories, which included several EU countries except Germany, added that they were "prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire".
The statement also branded the controversial Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as "dangerous" and said it deprives Palestinians of "human dignity".
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"We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food," the statement said.
"The Israeli government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable," it added, urging Israel to "comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law."
The United Nations has called the GHF's aid model "inherently unsafe" and in breach of impartial humanitarian principles.
The foundation, which began operations in late May following an 11-week Israeli blockade, uses private US mercenaries for delivery.
It bypasses the UN-led aid system, which Israel claims has been infiltrated by Hamas - an accusation that is not supported by independently verified evidence.
Israel bombs nursery
Monday's call for Israel to end its war came on the same day that it bombed one of the last remaining nurseries in central Gaza.
Videos seen by Middle East Eye showed children, many of whom were wearing their rucksacks, soaked in blood and screaming for help from teachers and passersby.
Children in Gaza die as David Lammy says UK is 'happy to do more' to help Read More »
The situation in Gaza has continued to deteriorate in recent days, and on Sunday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that "Gaza's hunger crisis has reached new levels of desperation".
"People are dying from lack of humanitarian assistance," the WFP said in a statement. "Malnutrition is surging, with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment. Nearly one person in three is not eating for days."
Gaza's Ministry of Health echoed that warning, saying that at least 19 Palestinians died of hunger on Sunday and hundreds more were suffering from malnutrition and could die soon.
"We warn that hundreds of people whose bodies have wasted away are at risk of imminent death due to hunger,' a spokesperson for the ministry said.
The ministry added that at least 71 children had died of malnutrition since the war began in 2023, while 60,000 others show signs of severe undernourishment.
Hamas offer to release all captives
Last week, the official spokesperson for Hamas's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said that the Palestinian group had repeatedly offered to release all the captives held in Gaza at once, as part of a comprehensive ceasefire deal, but Israel rejected the offer.
Abu Obaida said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet "rejected" the offer and were "not interested in the fate of their soldiers," he said, accusing the Israeli leadership of preparing the public for the possibility that all the captives will die.
Earlier in the week, sources had told MEE that the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza had reached out to Hamas through a representative to ask about the fate of the ceasefire talks.
The sources said that the representative had reached out to Hamas after the captives' families feared Netanyahu was trying to torpedo a possible deal.
Hamas and Israel reached a brief three-stage ceasefire in January, but the deal collapsed in March after Israel took back several of its captives and resumed bombing Gaza, walking away from the deal before talks with Hamas on a permanent end to the war could start.
Since then, the Trump administration has given Israel full backing to wage war on the enclave.
Israel has relentlessly bombed the besieged Gaza Strip since the 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, displacing the entire 2.3 million population multiple times, and has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.